Thanks for your thoughts and concern. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m back at work now for the first time since Tues. We have power at my office, but I still donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t have power at home. With no TV or computer, I feel completely out of touch. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m told it could be another 1-2 weeks before we have power again. I canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t wait to take a HOT shower. Fortunately, it has been relatively cool here w/out AC - highs in the low 90s, lows in the mid 60s.

We suffered minimal structural damage, but have a huge mess to clean up - wet, molding carpet and furniture and lots of big trees down. In addition to hundreds of limbs, my parents lost about 20 trees a minimum of 2.5 feet in diameter. My husband and I only lost 8 big trees, and none of them hit the house. The wind was clocked at 130 mph, and I felt our house shake three times. We live in one of the mandatory evacuation zones, but we opted to stay. I have a lot of confidence in our house now. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m afraid that Iansmom and Hannasmom got hit worse than me. From what I understand, their counties are without water and sewer. The schools here remain closed and IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve heard that it will be a minimum of two weeks before classes resume.

At least three women went into labor during the storm and the national guard was dispatched to retrieve them. If I were pg, I would have evacuated or at least spent the night at the hospital.

Again, thanks for your concern. I imagine weÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll hear from the other Alabama and NW Florida members as soon as power and internet connections are restored.
Leslie

Just got our power back today and I swear I will never take a hot shower for granted again!! LGW I am so glad that you suffered very little damage and hope your power is restored quicker than expected!

Still no power, but I did get to take a hot shower at the gym. Now if I could only have a big glass of COLD milk and maybe some ice cream. Anne - amazing things can happen by candlelight. I enjoyed the family update. Glad to hear you have power Tina.

we are fine. I am not officially back at work, but I went in yesterday to clean tanks. Thank goodness most of our animals are reptiles, because the fish don't do very well without power.

We have large trees down in the back yard, one on the house, but no damage - it is just resting there. We actually got power back Saturday evening! It pays to live near the Wal-Mart! Oh, the priorities of this society. Anyway, I am not complaining. i was not looking forward to living out of a cooler with 2 little ones. Of course we have no food anyway because of the power loss!!

I have talked to HannahsMom, they are fine. I think a small amount of damage to their house, but nothing bad.

This is the first time I have been on line, so i haven't checked it out yet, but the Pensacola News Journal is supposed to have some great pics of the area if ya'll are interested in what the beach looks like. My husband is out there now checking out the family property - or what is left of it.

Tina, I actually rode this one out at my parents house. I was through your area at about 1 am last Wednesday morning - sorry we couldn't meet [:D]. They got power and water on Monday. We came home Friday night.

LGW - I'm with you on the ice cream! The stores around here still don't have their freezer sections up and running.

Hi! I'm back! It's been a week since Hurricane Ivan slammed into us and I finally have power and other utilities back again! (I live in Navarre, and our county was hit really hard so it took longer to get power back). What an awful event. So many people here lost their homes. We live near the water and were evacuated before the storm. We stayed with my parents in Pace, but that was scary too - a tornado went through their backyard! We were sure that we wouldn't have a home to come back to, but luckily it's still standing with little damage, just lost some shingles and our fence. My husband and I both lost days at work so it's going to be hard to recover from it. We also both got our hours reduced while our companies try to get the businesses open again. I almost lost my job but they decided to just drop me down in hours instead. Although the hurricane was a terrible disaster, I learned so much from it. Power crews, fire fighters, and police officers from as far away as Canada came down to help, as well as the National Guard, the Salvation Army, and Red Cross. We live near a wealthy community and Hannah and I drove down there because we heard the Salvation Army was giving away ice, which we needed since we had no power. When we got there, the ice was gone, but the Salvation Army was giving out hot meals, something we had not had in days, so we decided to wait in line. There were people there who drove up in Mercedes and Humvees(sp?) as well as other fancy cars. To see these people waiting in line to get a meal at the Salvation Army truck was just an amazing sight, and something that probably humbled them. As much as I want to be rich and have money, this just proved to me that no matter how much money you have, you are not exempt from disaster. The whole experience has been tough, but I have learned many lessons. I missed you guys - it's great to be back!

By the way - Jackie - sorry we got cut off, my cell phone has been in and out since the storm. I'm glad you didn't have much damage. Leslie, I hope you get power soon! We got ours last night, I'm glad you didn't have too much damage either. Allison - the Piggly Wiggly is no longer the hang-out in Pace, it's now the Pick-in-Save!! Tina- glad you got power back too! Let us know when the first meeting will be!

I am so glad to hear from you both Suzanna and Jackie, I knew Ivan hit that area pretty hard! (and can you believe that a portion of him is back out in the gulf and a tropical storm now?? geez) Glad to hear there wasn't much damage for your homes.